Tabletop

If you're a tabletop gamer, you're pretty used to using your imagination to create fantastic imaginary worlds were anything can happen, so our virtual landscape for all things tabletop should be a home away from home for you.

Most everyone knows 40k, which I almost got into, but after discovering Warmachine, I just had to go with it. I love the fact that the warcaster is both your strongest resource but also the one most in danger. It makes for a great dynamic, its like the king and queen being combined in chess. Strongest unit, but if she or he dies, its game over.

Yeah, a few Warhammer 40k Dev's broke off and decided to make their own game a while back. Warmachine was their brain child, and although the size of the battles have grown over the years, its still considerably smaller and a helluva lot less complex than 40k.

I absolutely love it. I've been a huge fan of steampunk, since before I even knew it was a specific genre. So with the Warcasters in steam powered suits, steam powered robots, and amazing lore to go along with the universe - I was hooked the second I saw it.

And the fact that every warjack (the robots) can do power moves, like throws, slams (body tackles), arm locks, head butts, etc. makes the game a little more crazy. Nothing like slamming an enemies warjack into vital unit, only to have the players own jack become the wrecking ball that destroys them. Or head butting the enemy jack so that it is knocked down and all further melee attacks end up auto-hitting.

And those are just the powers that are shared by everyone, the faction specifics make it even more fun (each has an element: fire, ice, lightening, acid). I play the Protectorate of Menoth, its like an evilish uber religious group that wants to destroy everyone else for being heretics - we burn them with righteous fire, makes for a good time.

Technically, they are two entirely separate games. They play the same basic way, but have unique mechanics. When hosting a tournament, Hordes and Warmachine are both able to join up in the same game. It is balanced so that there isn't an issue with playing the two together, but the mechanics definitely make things way different.

Warcasters, in Warmachine, are given focus at the beginning of each round automatically - and can use it to cast spells and make their warjacks do awesome things. Warjacks can do basic attacks and moves on their own, but with the extra focus they can do power attacks, charge, run, and buy additional attacks. So Warmachine is very much warcaster based, the caster is what makes the warjacks awesome - without the focus, warjacks are decent, but no where near as awesome.

Warlocks (which are the Hordes equivalent of warcaster) use fury, which has to be generated by the beasts themselves. So when a warbeast does awesome things the previous round, it has fury on it, and the Warlock and siphon the fury off in order to cast spells (each warlock can only syphon off a limited number though, usually around 4-7 fury depending on their stats). That being said, the warbeasts do not need fury to do things, they just do the awesome things and fury is placed on them because they did it - and this can be taken by the warlock next round (used for spells and healing warbeasts). After the warlock siphons fury off the beast, each warbeast has to make a fury check -add the amount of fury currently on the beast to a die roll (I think its a 2d6 die roll). If number exceeds the beasts threshold (which is usually about a 8, 9, or 10), the beast goes crazy and cannot be controlled for a round). There is more to the Hordes mechanic since its more of a risk/reward aspect, but it also can pay off well since the beasts can do things without needing focus being given to them at the start of a turn - they can just do it (the risk is that next turn the warlock wouldn't be able to siphon off all the fury, and the beast goes nuts , but if u can win on that turn, next turn doesn't matter).

I hope that all made sense. In short, technically they are two different games, but they are set in the same universe and interact with one another. One side is the civilized side with armies and robots, the other side is the group of wilderness folk with clans, hordes, etc that are fighting back at the industrialized kingdoms. As far as evil/good goes, thats a much tougher issue to distinguish, since every army is both evil and good, but view their actions as justifiable.